Lzerarc, I have heard of companies doing just what you describe with recessed cans & bath fans. it has been a while, because for the most part we are foaming the roofline. if ducts are in the conditioned living space then attic floor is foamed. here,it is uncommon for ducts not to be in attic..sadly. epic fail on designer/arch imo most of the thread is about open cell. as per post #4 in which OP specifies foam type. I have the same problem in getting foam companies to install 8-9" of open cell sf insulation. on a few occasions I can 'make' them install this depth, but it causes bad feelings with the company & sometimes my client. the line from the foam company is that it raises cost of install. this tatic to me bears explaining. when adding to depth of foam insulation, it does NOT double the cost. to break it down, the homeowner pays for the foam company's set up. getting truck on site, heating the product, setting up the hoses to spray and prep work. once this is done, the cost to add more product is only product cost. it isn't much more time, as spray foam install is fast. set up has been paid for. to go from 3" to 6" or 9", the homeowner only pays for the extra product, and minimal time to install. this was the discussion in going from 3" to 6". foam co would say...double the cost, homeowner would balk. once the homeowner understood that they would be paying for setup etc no matter if 3",6" or more was installed, then we could start the conversation about true costs to insulate more. as for flash & batt, it just isn't happening here. if the foam company is on sit, they aren't there to just spray 1", when they could be on another job spraying more & making more money. if the foam co can't convince the homeowner to install more foam...they simply do not take the job. now maybe if they worked for a builder & had several houses to do with flash/batt. but in my area, the foam salesmen have flat out told me that they won't waste their time doing flash/batt. IMO it isn't a bad way to go...just getting a company to make minimal money when they could be making more for the same amount of time. I'm 100% with you on no recessed lights. this is a trend I keep waiting for its death! personally why Insulation Contact (not IC Air Tight) are even still produced is something I don't understand. even when recessed lights are to be installed under porches, I have homeowner/electrician purchase only ICAT. otherwise the boxes get mixed up during install & types are mixed in the house. upcharge isn't much per case to go IC to ICAT.

OK More experiences of 2/3 loft over lower floor. Just tossing these experiences out there. We had new carpet put in the whole house and when the guy was repairing the floors upstairs all the hammering brought down scads dust and grit from all the years seeping into the cracks. There was tongue and groove two by 6's or 8's for flooring. The lower floor did feel a bit closed in by the ceiling above. I believe the ceiling was a bit short of the norm. There were no side walls as ML suggested to give better ceiling height in loft. There was no way to hang pictures on the loft walls except the one end wall. They slanted too much. Since we did not have to worry about heating with the hot spring water available I have no idea on the added energy costs. A person could always hang a heavy draw curtain across the loft opening when not in use to control heat loss from below. Would have to be custom made but us sewers could figure out how to do it. I am terrified of heights but planes do not bother me other then now all the bother to board. I have pretty much given up flying. Not to mention the 90 mile drive each way to and from airport. The only place to fly to for me would be to see my Mom and it is also a 90 mile drive to airport and back on her end. I might as well drive the whole way. LOL I went through exactly what you are going through Sandy. I had some more limitations because once we chose the manufactured home that would fit our lot I had to work within that floor plan and only had the options of adding stretches and moving windows and the closet thing I explained before. then the master bath switching it up from glamor bath to half glamor bath. I really would have liked a larger laundry room. but this one works fine. I just fold laundry wherever it lands and I do use the line to dry the clothes most of the time so they come off the line and end up in master bedroom on bed to fold. We had another model house chosen at first in fact there were two other models and one I liked better but the added 20K put the bite in things. And there were issues with it in the living room arrangement. There just seems to be give and take. I think you have already written down all the things you want. I just do not think you can ever make it all perfect. What is pretty funny is the house we built took us one evening, a couple of hours, to draw up the plans. Was totally simple. We later decided if we had moved the master bedroom door over to the other end of the room it would have been so much better and still could have been done with out too much trouble. But we never bothered to do it. We were so happy in that house. Was a small house too. We built exactly what we drew up. That house would not work for me now. I am really happy with this house plan. We both are. It is a very comfortable house to live in for us. I do not remember what your SQ FT was going to be. Was it 1200? If so that was a little too small for me as we had it in the last house. Just the lay out here and the added 100 SQ FT helped to make this house work. AND at the last 1200 SQ FT house I had an added out side pantry of 8 by 6 and then my shed space of 10 by 16 and that would add up to more than we have here and it did not work. So it is not always the size that matters. I think it is the lay out. There used to be manufactured home sites on line with scads of floor plans. I looked at them for weeks taking things I liked and things I did not like. One place we chose we had to make so many changes to it it turned out we were better off not getting it at all. Add in we had a special roof snow load we had to adjust for. There were restrictions on how open we could go. I do not think you have that there. Here it is required 85 pound roof load. We have 120 on the house and 100 on the shop just so we do not have to shovel the roofs. You might want to back off just for a few days on this thought process. Like trying to balance the check book that is off 15 cents and you can not find it. Step away from it and when you come back a day or three later you see the mistake right away. Just a thought. You have my sympathy this is so stressful. Chris

There is no attic because the garage is under the bedrooms. The garage is insulated, which is an option chosed by the original buyer who backed out after the house was about to be fnished. I found this statement in an article called: COMMON WIRING METHODS USED CONCERNING WIRING AN ATTACHED GARAGE (http://www.selfhelpandmore.com/homewiringusa/1999/maindwelling/attgarage/index.htm): "Outside receptacles, basement receptacles, and garage receptacles can be run on the same circuits, and can be protected by the same GFCI device. 210-8 Kitchen 210-52-B-2 and bathroom 210-11-3 receptacles must be dedicated as their own circuits, therefore kitchen and bathroom receptacles must not be wired on the same circuits as the garage, basement or outside receptacle circuits.210-52-B-2 and 210-11-3" It didn't address if the garage outlets could be part of other circuits. It did say that they cannot be part of the kitchen or bathroom circuits. I'm so confused!

Well I know this isn't what you asked, but are you entirely certain it needs to be "soundproof"? Or is that possibly an assumption you are making? Where do you anticipate the most noise coming from? How old is your daughter? Do you have other kids? Is there another bedroom available to her? I think my approach would be more parenting-based rather than renovations, assuming she has other options for a bedroom. If she is over the age of 8 I would explain to her that if she chooses a living space that is more open to traffic (ie a loft, or hostel, or rooming house, or sorority house) she will inevitably hear her housemates. And I would also explain to her that as good members of a community we need to be considerate of our neighbours and not be loud after a reasonable time of day (which in your house, you would define). Then I would let her move up to the loft with no alterations whatsoever and let her either succeed in the experiment or fail and move back to an enclosed room with a little more life experience. Maybe there will be no noise disturbances at all. Or maybe she discovers that she can sleep right through them (a useful trait in college). Or maybe she discovers that loft life is not for her and she never makes that mistake as an adult, when the stakes are so much higher. If she is under 8 I might not allow this choice just because of the fact that I really do parent as described above and I don't think kids that age are quite developmentally able to consider all those factors. If she is over 18 she is on her own as far as any renos go and I wouldn't do anything beside offering to install a curtain rod or two for privacy. If there is no other bedroom available and/or my parenting style doesn't work for your family I think your least expensive option will be drywall. It won't be soundproof but unless she is planning to use it as a recording studio, soundproof isn't necessary.